Khosla ka Ghosla-The Indian Middle Class Strikes back

Readers of my blog and my close friends would find it surprising that I am writing a film review . People close to me know that I am not a film buff ......and my wife is quite an opposite , she loves Hindi films , is a die-hard Amitabh fan and I am exactly the opposite....(though I like to dance to the tunes of filmi music with pretty women...) Hindi films are at times the cause of matrimonial stress....but more on that some other day .

A couple of weeks ago my dear wife got me tickets for a film called "Kholsa ka Ghosla" ....and my first reaction was "Oh my God , not another one"....I was sure that this was one of the variants of "Mehne...XYZ...Kiya", while I have nothing against such kind of films but neither do they particularly excite me ....but I decided to go along to the theater with an open mind...as open as I could keep it ....... It was a three hour film and I must say it was an amazing experience . Kudos to Director Dibakar Banerjee, who in his first outing presented a social problem with a delectable blend of comedy.

As one would easily guess the setting of the film is in New Delhi (Khosla being a common Punjabi name).......it's about a middle class government employee who wants to build his dream house (ghosla) . He lifetime savings went into buying a piece of land for a princely sum of Rs 30 lakhs. The members of Mr Khosla's household view this piece of land acquisition through their own filters -his younger son is indifferent, he wants to go to the US and already has a job in NY , so he doesn't care for dad's ghosla , the elder good- for -nothing son is amused ...Ms Khosla supports her husband in his Taj Mahal dream .....and finally on one Sunday when the family goes to do the Bhumi Pujan...they realize that their plot has been captured by land shark Khurana (played by Bomman Irani). His dream shattered ,Mr Khosla ,goes to meet Khurana who demands a hefty ransom to release the plot that was rightfully his . Mr Khosla approaches the police , the local politician and an NGO , all of them have a standard response , "we will negotiate with Khurana and bring down the ransom amount , you pay us our fees..." in this day and age , you would expect the police and the politicians to do this to you , but not NGO's......... a dejected Khurana loses all hope of getting back his land.......while the drama of deceit was unfolding , there was a transformation happening parallely........Khosla's second son (the one who wanted to settle down in NY) was silently feeling his father's pain and was plotting to pay back Khurana....he and his friends duped Khurana to buy a plot of land which belonged to the fisheries department and with the proceeds of the sale to paid back Khurana his ransom and releasde his father's plot .

The issue of land grabbing and harassment is quite common in India . My father was harassed by local CPI(M) and Congress goons when we decided to build a house in Kolkata in 1986 , and a middle class family like ours had no recourse ....it's been two decades after that and still today the social evil not only exists but has been compounded , at least twenty years ago there were some checks and balances in society , there were avenues for the "aam admi" to be heard ....not any longer , the film brings out how the situation has become worse with the NGO's also doing their fair share to complicate matters ( I am not at all suggesting that all NGO's do it , but I am personally aware of many who claim to be NGO's but their objectives are not exactly what their MOA claim to be...).

This film shows the middle class how to survive , and if it means to pay back these corrupt elements in the same coin...so be it ....how long can we the Indian middle class be harassed by our polity , our police ...

This brilliant theme and the script was brought to life by versatile actors like Bomman Irani , Anupam Kher , others like Tara Sharma , Ravin Shorey and Parvin Dabas form a perfect caste for a near perfect film......